Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

Fire Maidens of Outer Space

In England, astronomers peer through large optical telescopes and discover a thirteenth moon orbiting Jupiter, a moon that appears to be surrounded by 'terrestrial fog'. The scientists ponder whether it can support life, and if it even might have people living on it. To advance scientific knowledge of this enigma, a team of five is dispatched to investigate.

The explorers are launched for Jupiter on a V2 rocket outfitted with nuclear engines, which have just been perfected.

Timmy joins in on the riffing

On approach to the Jovian system, they are instead contacted by an unidentified male voice and supplied with landing instructions. The team sets down and begins exploring the Earth-like world.

The team encounters a small statue and rescues a screaming woman from the pawing of a gaunt, growling creature. Three members of the crew return to the ship. The other two follow the non-speaking woman to a fortified settlement and learn that the 13th moon of Jupiter was settled by refugees from Atlantis. Only one male remains, and the rest are all attractive young women ('Fire Maidens'). The Earth-men are then drugged and separated by the women, who have plans for them.

Things get more interesting when the three men at the ship decide to return to the settlement and break in, which also allows the creature to enter. After a short confrontation which interrupts an attempted human sacrifice, the creature is felled.

Blair, the team leader, declares his affection for the main Fire Maiden and the Earth men depart (with said Maiden), promising to return to get the other Atlanteans and/or bring them husbands.

It is thematically similar to Cat-Women of the Moon, but with a larger budget.

Information

Jacqueline Curtis receives an "introducing" credit.

The rocket launch used in this film is actually a V-2 rocket that was confiscated by the United States after the Germans were defeated in World War II. The launch took place at the White Sands test range in New Mexico around 1946. It has been used in a number of other 1950s-era science fiction films.

The Episode

Host Segments

Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads present the big checkbook, like the ones companies use for prize giveaway photo ops. Unfortunately, Frank has written some checks to people who he can't remember, causing Forrester to interrogate him in a manner similar to that in It's a Wonderful Life. Joel presents the Nike Air-chelada, a 'high-tech cross-training shoe' whose center contains 'deliciously spreadable port-wine cheese'. Crow also introduces Joel and Tom to his new friend the black creature, whom he names "Timmy".

Timmy!

Segment Two: Double entendres that really aren’t double entendres so much as they are saying an ordinary phrase in a suggestive tone of voice. Timmy, however gets Crow in trouble with his suggestions.

Segment Three: Trying to replicate the rocket in the film's incredibly simple controls, Joel has built the Twin Screw Universal Controller, a two-lever system that controls literally everything aboard the SOL. Timmy frames Crow and gets him a time-out before fiddling with the levers, with very surreal consequences.

Segment Four: Timmy snatches Tom Servo away, screaming and crying for help, in the theater and encases him in a pseudopod on the Satellite bridge. While Crow goes one on one with his evil double, Joel arrives with a rake and forces Timmy out the airlock a la Ripley in Aliens ("Let go of him, you bitch!"). Joel scolds Crow about bringing evil specters onto the ship, but all is forgiven when they realize it's commercial sign.

Timmy vs Joel

Segment Five: The bots are having a difficult time processing what went on in the movie and Joel tries to console them. To cheer them up, he reads a letter from a girl named Ashley who says her little sister looks like Crow and her brother is slowly turning into Tom Servo. This works, but only for a little while. Timmy, meanwhile, has fallen into the hands of an unsuspecting Frank, and bites his finger before the credits roll.

In John Irving's novel The World According to Garp, the Ellen Jamesians are a group of radical feminists who have cut out their own tongues in support of an eleven year old girl named Ellen James, whose rapists cut out her tongue to silence her.

"Look ladies, I'm no Wilt Chamberlain!"

Basketball player Wilt Chamberlain claimed in 1991 that he had sex with over 20,000 women in his life... Or, assuming he became sexually active at the age of 15, 1.37 women per day. (Fill in your own jokes about what the implications of sex with .37 of a woman suggests.)

"So he signed me up for this film called 'Sleep', with Andy Warhol..."

In 1963, artist Andy Warhol directed an experimental film entitled Sleep that consisted of eight hours' worth of footage of a man sleeping.

"Jeez, the Bataan Death March was less painful than this!"

The Bataan Death March occurred in 1942, when the Japanese army forced tens of thousands of American POWs and Filipino resistance fighters- many of whom died in the process- to walk across an occupied Philippine island.

"Tip O'Neill, ladies and gentlemen! Tip O'Neill!"

Tip O'Neill was the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987.